Category: Higher Education/System

Former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy G. Thompson has agreed to serve as UW System Interim President effective July 1, the UW Board of Regents announced Friday.

In its announcement, the Board described Thompson as a champion of public universities.

The University of Alaska faculty union has called for the immediate resignation of the system’s president, who withdrew last week as the lone finalist to succeed University of Wisconsin System President Ray Cross.

The University of Wisconsin System said in a statement that it expects to receive approximately $19 million of the money earmarked for higher education.

Public colleges in the University of Wisconsin system will welcome students back to campus for the fall 2020 semester after the spring 2020 semester was cut short by the coronavirus pandemic in the state.

University of Maryland, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Penn State University, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Northwestern University, University of Michigan and Rutgers University have yet to announce a concrete date of reopening or plan at all as of Sunday. Most are set to release updates in the coming weeks.

Cross said campuses are “preparing an environment that reduces risk” for a safe return amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The University of Wisconsin System officially announced Sunday that students will head back to campus for the fall 2020 semester for in-person and online instruction, according to UW System President Ray Cross and Regent President Andrew S. Petersen.

In what University of Wisconsin System Regent President Andrew Petersen called “a dark day for the UW System,” the only remaining candidate for the University of Wisconsin System president has withdrawn his name from consideration for the position.

They call for putting classes of more than 50 students online, having a plan if coronavirus cases spike, re-evaluating dorm and dining hall operations, use of masks and placing students who share classes together in dorms.

UW-Madison spokesperson Meredith McGlone said in an email to The Badger Herald that the administration is working to finalize their plans, and they expect to make an announcement in the next week.

“We are preparing an environment that reduces risk so that students, faculty, and staff can return to campus in person this fall,” UW System President Ray Cross said in a statement.

Schalk, now an assistant professor of gender and women’s studies at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, tweeted a version of this story with the hashtag #BlackintheIvory. Last weekend, students and professors started tweeting painful stories about fighting an uphill battle in the academy, initially under the hashtag #BlackIntheIvory, begun by two scholars who urged other black people in academia to share their experiences.

At the University of Wisconsin-Madison, for example, most employees face furloughs and layoffs, though graduate students are exempt. Some states, including Florida, are awarding “performance-based funding,” which includes $47.7 million going to the University of Florida.

’[ASM] rejects the flawed search process and will not support Johnsen’s candidacy’ ASM Chair said.

The lone finalist for the University of Wisconsin System president job pledged to promote diversity and listen to faculty and staff’s concerns during an interview with campus stakeholders Tuesday, but he offered no detailed plans for dealing with the system’s financial woes or re-opening universities as the coronavirus pandemic stretches on.

The sole finalist in the running to become the next University of Wisconsin System president made his pitch for the position Tuesday while nearly 2,000 UW students, staff and alumni called for a new search.

Faculty and some campus administrators in the University of Wisconsin System are pushing back against a plan outlined by system president Ray Cross for addressing budget cuts and revenue losses — pushback that has caused Cross to backtrack from his initial timeline for the proposal.

The University of Wisconsin System wants the Legislature to allow it to begin classes sooner than Sept. 1 and borrow money, moves that UW President Ray Cross said Wednesday would help it deal with “unprecedented financial and planning challenges” due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Faculty and some campus administrators in the University of Wisconsin System are pushing back against a plan outlined by system president Ray Cross for addressing budget cuts and revenue losses — pushback that has caused Cross to backtrack from his initial timeline for the proposal.

A single finalist has been named in the search to replace outgoing University of Wisconsin System President Ray Cross. Jim Johnsen, who currently serves as president of the University of Alaska System is the only finalist that didn’t drop out of the search process.

Tuesday, the University of Wisconsin Presidential Search Committee announced their one finalist moving forward to the next phase of the selection process.

The regents are scheduled to vote Thursday on a 2020-21 operating budget that calls for increasing student fees an average of $30 across the system’s four-year schools. Room-and-board costs would go up an average of nearly $130 across the institutions.

A new University of Wisconsin study shows that its graduates earn a median salary of about $49,000 one year after earning a bachelor’s degree and those from Wisconsin are about six-times more likely to remain in the state than those who come to the school from elsewhere.

The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater announced Friday residence halls will open for the fall semester and in-person classes will resume.

University of Wisconsin System President Ray Cross has announced the layoffs of dozens of employees working in the division known as UW-Shared Services due to financial challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Gov. Tony Evers said last week he plans to appoint three new members to the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents before its June meeting, weeks after two board members with expired terms voted on major policies and contracts.

University of Wisconsin-River Falls Chancellor Dean Van Galen has been chosen as the new president of Missouri Southern State University, the two schools announced Monday.

In their final weeks of medical school at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Jandal and his peers had seen the world turned upside down.

Indeed, to date few state schools have died, but I think the pandemic may lead to a large number of institutions, especially branches of major flagship schools, to close (the University of Wisconsin is moving aggressively in that direction).

The biggest obstacle in the way is money.

Next week, more than 200 additional students will return to the main Madison College campus to complete their own classes, in person.